Sake to Me! Kiku-Masamune Sake Skin Care Lotion

Sake is useful for making you beautiful…and not just by giving your date sake-goggles ladies, muahhahahah. If you’re unfamiliar, the legend of the famous SK-II brand has it that a scientist in 1970s-era Japan noticed the very soft and youthful hands of women working in a Japanese saké brewery. So now the sake beauty products proliferate.

Also there’s some research saying that the kojic acid in sake decreases your skin’s ability to form the melanin found in spots and freckles. This same type of acid helps your skin retain moisture. Sake yeast is also supposed to stimulate cell-regeneration. Lots of promising “scientific” claims!

Today I binged at Atlantic Square in Alhambra again and blew a bit of dough on experimental products, one of which is a face milky toner lotion by Kiku-Masamune. It’s NOT a beauty brand; it’s a sake brewery!

This milky toner is made from amino acids that are the product of the Japanese sake from this brewery. The 17 fl oz (500ml) bottle cost me $15 so it’s a LOT of product for the price. Great to use it as a cheap toning face mask. I bought those cotton sheet masks that you can use to create your own.

After soaking the sheet mask in about a tablespoon of potion, I left it on my face for 10 minutes. It stings a little! 😦

Overall due to the stinging effect I imagine the sake fermented chemicals must be doing something! My face does look brighter and feels very smooth. There is a bit of stickiness so I rinse off before putting on makeup. I know sheet masks are supposed to have ingredients that you rub in after use, but I can’t layer on makeup after a mask because I just feel that you need a dry clean canvas for makeup. After all, sake is alcohol which means it’s sugar! Rinse it off!

Pros: cheap guilty pleasure, sake is a famous ingredient for softening and reducing spots on your skin, smells intoxicating 😉 but not that alcoholic…yes I tried to taste it shuddup. But it’s probably not safe to drink like your favorite Daiginjo ok?Cons: kinda stings so if you’re sensitive you may wanna skip this, contains arbutin(!) which I am allergic to. I only noticed after using the mask. DOH. Maybe that’s why it stings a little…below is the ingredient list. I missed seeing the arbutin until too late. Thank goodness I didn’t get a reaction…yet